The Clayoquot protests, also called the War in the Woods, were a series of blockades related to clearcutting in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia. They culminated in mid-1993, when 856 people were arrested. The blockades in the summer of 1993 against logging of the temperate rainforest were the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history until the 2021 Fairy Creek blockades.
Nuu-chah-nulth logging road blockade site
Protestors blocking the logging road
The court injunction being read to protesters, August 1993
Fairy Creek old-growth logging protests
Protests against old-growth logging in the southern Vancouver Island region of British Columbia, Canada escalated through later 2020 and into 2021. These events, many coalescing around the Fairy Creek watershed northeast of Port Renfrew, represent a critical moment in BC's recurring history of conflict related to ecological values and the forest industry, recalling the Clayoquot Protests of the early 1990s. It has been described as "one of the largest [acts of] civil disobedience in Canadian history," with over 1,000 protesters arrested on the site as of February 11, 2022.
Protesters retake "Camp Land Back" from the RCMP at the Fairy Creek blockade, August 2021
Old growth tree set to be cut down in the Caycuse Watershed TFL 44
Image: RCMP Fairy Creek Blockade